224 Profitable Poultry Keeping. 



CHAPTER XX. 



THE PREPAEATION OF TABLE FOWLS. 



Superiority of French System— Breeds of Fowls Suitable for Fattening — Methods 

 — Dur.'ioo of Process— Food — Fattening and Crataojiog Machines — Cram- 

 ming by Hand— Killing Fowls — Dressing in France — Shaping-boards — Advan- 

 tage of Dressing — Caponising. 



The question of preparing fowls for the table, is not one 

 that can be neglected, even by those poultry keepers whose 

 object is primarily eggs, as they have many birds which, 

 if fattened and killed off, would sell profitably ; but, unfor- 

 tunately, the question of preparing for the table is very 

 little understood, and there is very great room for improve- 

 ment in this respect. The great superiority of the French 

 dressed poultry, which is evident to all who visit Paris, is 

 due to three things : first, the greater care taken in breed- 

 ing table fowls; second, the capital methods of fattening; 

 and, third, the splendid way in which the birds are trussed 

 when offered for sale. In our American markets we find a 

 different state of things altogether. There is, at the outset, 

 little or no care taken with respect to the breeds — except, 

 perhaps, in one or two districts ; the birds are, as a rule, 

 picked up out of the farmyard and killed at once, without any 

 preparatory feeding whatever; and they are, as a rule, simply 

 pludked, not even drawn (much less dressed and trussed, 

 except in IVew England), and with head and feet on. We 

 hope, however, that a change for the better will soon take 



